Moore sworn in as chief justice

Saturday

Jan 12, 2013 at 12:01 AM

MONTGOMERY | Friends and neighbors of Gallant native Roy Moore watched his second swearing-in on Friday as chief justice of Alabama in a solemn and religious ceremony in the Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building.

By Dana BeyerleMontgomery Bureau Chief

MONTGOMERY | Friends and neighbors of Gallant native Roy Moore watched his second swearing-in on Friday as chief justice of Alabama in a solemn and religious ceremony in the Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building.Moore and Supreme Court Justice-elect Tommy Bryan took their oaths of office during an investiture ceremony that was attended by Moore’s West Point classmates, family and friends, and Bryan’s family, friends, and associate justices on the Court of Civil Appeals.Bryan is moving up from the Court of Civil Appeals.Gov. Robert Bentley honored Bryan and Moore with commissions. They begin their six-year terms on Monday.In the balcony of the Supreme Court courtroom were Johnny and Nancy King and Ken and Linda Sadler, who have been Moore’s neighbors in the Etowah County community of Gallant for more than 50 years.They said Moore came from humble beginnings and took over as the man of the house after his father died. Moore was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy in 1965 by then-U.S. Rep. Jim Martin, R-Gadsden, who attended Friday’s ceremony.Mrs. Sadler said that Moore would walk five or six miles to go home after football practice and that he made A’s in school. “Roy took over the family,” Ken Sadler said.“He had a goal,” Mrs. King said.“I always thought a lot of Roy,” Johnny King said.In 2000, Moore was elected as the second Republican chief justice in Alabama history. But he defied a federal judge and lost his office in 2003 for failure to remove a granite Ten Commandments monument that he had placed in the rotunda of the state judicial building.He ran for governor twice. He lost to Gov. Bob Riley in the 2006 primary and lost to Bentley in the 2010 GOP primary. In 2012, Moore won the Republican chief justice primary without a runoff against appointed Chief Justice Charles Malone and Mobile County Circuit Judge Charles Graddick, who is also a former state attorney general.“If he hadn’t beat me, I wouldn’t be here today,” Moore said about Bentley, in a lighter moment.“It is indeed a great honor to once again become chief justice of Alabama,” Moore said.Bentley returned the light-hearted compliment by saying that if Moore had not lost the 2010 primary, he wouldn’t be governor. “His supporters supported me and that’s the reason I am here today,” Bentley said.Moore and other speakers in the prayer-filled ceremony invoked the word of God, but Moore didn’t mention the monument to the Ten Commandments, which he has previously said that he won’t return to the judicial building.Moore praised his wife, Kayla, for being strong.The 1969 graduate of West Point and Vietnam military police unit commander earned a law degree from the University of Alabama in 1977.Moore took the oath of office from West Point classmate John Bentley, a circuit judge.Moore, 65, served as a deputy district attorney in Etowah County from 1977 to 1982 and in 1984 practiced law until 1992, when he was appointed a circuit judge.He displayed a hand-carved plaque of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom and was sued in 1995 for opening court with prayer. He was elected chief justice in 2000 after gaining national prominence as the Ten Commandments judge.Bryan, 56, was elected to the Court of Civil Appeals in 2004, was re-elected in 2010 and last year was elected to the Supreme Court to succeed retiring Justice Tom Woodall.

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